MICHELANGELO: The Art of Old Age

Did Michelangelo really believe that his life had been
wasted because he failed to pursue a spiritual goal? Yes, he
did believe that and wrote about in his journal in later
life. Nonetheless, his later works are an astounding example
of what critics would later call the “late style” and “late freedom.”

Here is the Rondanini Pietà,a marble sculpture
that Michelangelo worked on from the 1550s until the last days of
his life, in 1564.

Henry Moore, no small name in modern sculpture, said that in
the Rondanini Pietà, Michelangelo’s “technical achievement became
less important to him, when he knew that the technical thing was
something he could do without worrying.